Projectors are used for a wide variety of applications, such as light shows or animations for music concerts and other live events, corporate presentations, video conferences, home theaters, etc. Typically, a video projector receives a video signal and projects an image corresponding to the signal onto a surface, using a lens system.
Video projector technologies include LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), DLP (Digital Light Processing), LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon), LED (Light Emitting Diode) and Laser Diode. It is further known to create light animations by modifying the color of a plurality of modular elements in response to IR signals sent by a remote control. It is also known in the art to change the state of a plurality of modular elements using a distribution panel to which the module elements are connected.
An example of such system was developed by the Responsive Environments Group at the MIT Media Lab and is known as “push pin computing”. This system includes a hardware and software platform for experimenting and prototyping algorithms for distributed sensor networks. The platform consists of approximately 100 nodes of inhabiting a substrate of predetermined dimensions. The system is described more in details on http://web.media.mit.edu/˜lifton/research/pushpin/index.html.
Another known system is shown on the web site of the design studio of Ziagelbaum and Coelho (http://zigelbaumcoelho.com/six-forty-by-four-eighty/). Modular elements provided with LEDs react when touched by lighting up, changing color, blinking, etc. They can also be activated by an IR remote control.
Yet another known way of creating a light animation consists of using balloons linked together in a giant mesh. Each balloon is provided with electronic components and LEDs. The LEDs of each balloon are controlled via a console located on a handlebar. The handlebar includes several consoles, each console allowing to control a group of balloons, the console being linked to the electronic components of the balloons. The web site http://www.haque.co.uk/openburble.php provides details on this type of lighted animation.
A similar light animation consists of animating a giant mesh of balloons using cell phones. The mesh includes one thousand helium balloons and several dozen mobile phones. The balloons contain miniature sensor circuits and LEDs that respond to electromagnetic fields, such as those of mobile phones. When activated, the sensor circuits of each balloon communicate with one another, causing the LEDs of the entire mesh to illuminate. More information on this type of animation can be found on “http://www.haque.co.uk/skyear/information.html”.
These systems provide striking and spectacular animations. However, the complexity of the resulting animations is limited, since the lighted elements are not centrally controlled or activated. In addition, the synchronization of all elements requires them to be physically linked to one another, for example via a panel, as in the “six-forty by four-eighty” installation of Ziglebaum and Coehlo, or via a mesh, as in the SkyEar installation of Haque. This limits the mobility of the lighted elements within a given environment.
In light of the above, there remains a need for systems and methods for providing a distributed manifestation in an environment which alleviates at least some of the drawbacks of the prior art.